Poster Child

Congratulations to my very good friend Nicole and everyone else who's had to endure the dehumanizing degradation of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" these past 18 years just because Bill Clinton made a stupid political compromise.

Before 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, a return to the Navy wasn’t something Nicole Barbe could even consider. Twelve years ago, she was forced to leave the Navy, one of about 13,000 people discharged from the military under the 18-year-old “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy barring gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military. Even before Tuesday’s repeal of that policy, she had begun talking to a recruiter about re-enlisting in the Navy Reserve.

“It feels like — I don’t know, like Christmas morning,” Barbe said Tuesday.

Gay and lesbian communities across the nation celebrated the reversal of the controversial policy enacted in 1993 under President Bill Clinton.

It was no different at the Boondock bar in the French Quarter, which was adorned with signs Tuesday evening announcing “Goodbye, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Barbe hosted the celebration on behalf of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which helped her receive an honorable discharge after the Navy sent her packing in 1999.